HERE IT IS TREATED OF AN ARGUMENT AND A JUDGMENT THAT TOOK PLACE IN
ALEXANDRIA
In Alexandria, which is in the parts of Roumania—for there are twelve
Alexandrias which Alexander founded in the March before he died [15]—in
this Alexandria there are streets where the Saracens live, who make
foods for sale, and the people seek out the street where the finest and
most delicate foodstuffs are to be found, just as among us one goes in
search of cloths.
On a certain Monday, a Saracen cook whose name was Fabrae was standing
by his kitchen door, when a poor Saracen entered the kitchen with a
loaf in his hand. Money to purchase viands he had none, so he held his
loaf over the pot, and let the savoury steam soak into it, and ate it.
The Saracen Fabrae, who was doing a poor trade that morning, was
annoyed at the action, and seized the poor Saracen, and said to him:
pay me for what you have taken of mine.
The poor man answered: I have taken nothing from your kitchen save
steam. [16] Pay me for what you have taken of mine, Fabrae continued to
exclaim.
The dispute over this new and difficult question which had never arisen
before, continued to such an extent that news of it reached the Sultan.
Owing to the great novelty of the argument, the Sultan called together
a number of wise men. He laid the question before them.
The Saracen wise men began to dispute, and there were those who held
that the steam did not belong to the cook, for which they adduced many
good reasons. Steam cannot be appropriated, for it dissolves in the
air, and has no useful substance or property. Therefore the poor man
ought not to pay. Others argued that the steam was still part of the
viand cooking, in fact that it belonged to it and emanated from its
property, that a man sells the products of his trade, and that it is
the custom for him who takes thereof to pay.
Many were the opinions given, and finally came the judgment: since this
man sells his foodstuffs and you and others buy them, you must pay his
viands according to their value. If for the food he sells and of which
he gives the useful properties he is accustomed to take useful money,
then since he has sold steam which is the vaporous part of his cooking,
you, sir, must ring a piece of money, and it shall be understood that
payment is satisfied by the sound that comes therefrom.